Maximize your remodeling dollars

By Nolan Hicks :
March 2, 2014

Elyse and Richard Galik purchased a crumbling Tobin Hill home in 2011 and began an extensive remodeling late in 2012, effectively rebuilding most of the house. The remodeling was completed during the summer of 2013.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

The Galiks' purchased their Tobin Hill home in 2011 and began an extensive remodeling late in 2012, effectively rebuilding most of the house. The remodeling was complete during the summer of 2013.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

The Galiks' purchased their Tobin Hill home in 2011 and began an extensive remodeling late in 2012, effectively rebuilding most of the house. The remodeling was complete during the summer of 2013.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

The Galiks' purchased their Tobin Hill home in 2011 and began an extensive remodeling late in 2012, effectively rebuilding most of the house. The remodeling was complete during the summer of 2013.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

The Galiks' purchased their Tobin Hill home in 2011 and began an extensive remodeling late in 2012, effectively rebuilding most of the house. The remodeling was complete during the summer of 2013.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

The Galiks' purchased their Tobin Hill home in 2011 and began an extensive remodeling late in 2012, effectively rebuilding most of the house. The remodeling was complete during the summer of 2013.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

The Galiks' purchased their Tobin Hill home in 2011 and began an extensive remodeling late in 2012, effectively rebuilding most of the house. The remodeling was complete during the summer of 2013.

Photo By San Antonio Express-News

The Galiks' purchased their Tobin Hill home in 2011 and began an extensive remodeling late in 2012, effectively rebuilding most of the house. The remodeling was complete during the summer of 2013.

The Galiks kept the facade, but gutted everything else and rebuilt. This bedroom reflects the early 1900s era of the home.

Photo By Buffalo Contracting Services

This American foursquare in Tobin Hill was dilapidated when the Galiks purchased it. They estimate the house was built in the early 1900s.

Photo By Courtesy Elyse Galik

The exterior restoration only hints at the extensive renovation, which included a full makeover inside.

Photo By Helen L. Montoya / San Antonio Express-News

It took six months of work before the Galiks could call their house a home.

More Information

The value of remodeling

Some remodeling projects offer a better return than others. Here is a list of some common projects, both big and small, and the amount of the cost typically recouped in San Antonio in 2013.

Midrange homes:

Bathroom remodel: 91 percent

Bathroom addition: 68.1 percent

Deck addition (wood): 90.1 percent

Entry door replacement (steel): 104.1 percent

Home office remodel: 62.3 percent

Major kitchen remodel: 80.5 percent

Minor kitchen remodel: 82.3 percent

Siding replacement (vinyl): 95.9 percent

Upscale homes:

Bathroom remodel: 68.7 percent

Deck addition (composite): 74.7 percent

Garage door replacement: 74 percent

Major kitchen remodel: 71 percent

Siding replacement (fiber-cement): 99.9 percent

Source: 2013 data published by Remodeling magazine

SAN ANTONIO — Remodeling a house is a lot like buying a car. There are cheap options, like putting up a new coat of paint. There are expensive options, like gutting a house from the inside out. And then there's everything in between.

And just like with a car, the price doesn't really answer the question of what sort remodeling projects provide the biggest bang for the buck.

Take Elyse and Richard Galik's home in the historic Tobin Hill neighborhood. The dilapidated pre-World War I-era house they purchased in 2011 wasn't fit to live in.

“We literally gutted it and started over,” said Daniel Sexton, whose firm, Buffalo Contracting Services, did the work. “We kept all of the old façade and rehabilitated it. But everything else — electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning — started brand new from the street in.”

After more than six months of construction, the Galiks are at home in the house they restored and modernized.

Improvements bumped up the tax valuation by 60 percent, but the amount doesn't come close to matching what the couple invested.

Still, Elyse Galik said the project was worth the time and money spent.

“I truly believe you get what you pay for, and going cheap is going to be a real mistake,” she said.

Getting a good return on your remodeling investment starts with the contractor, Elyse Galik said. “I think if you have a contractor you can develop some sort of relationship with, and you tell them up front, 'This is my budget and I can't go over it,' hopefully they will be honest with you and tell you when you're being ridiculous,” she said.

Not every remodel is as extensive as the Galik house. Many simpler projects — even painting — can improve the resale value of a home.

“It made the kitchen go from what it was before — an old 1970s kitchen — to being what people wanted today, in that price range of house,” she said.

Other improvements, such as updating bathrooms and removing the acoustic ceiling texture, the dreaded “popcorn,” in older homes, can boost the sale price or make the house sell faster.

The popcorn removal “makes a huge, huge difference,” she said. “There are simple things that will make a difference in getting the house sold quickly. As always, kitchen remodels and bathrooms are where you're going to get the biggest effect.”

Sexton said that as a contractor, he's selling remodeling to his customers primarily as a way to make their homes more useful, not to increase resale.

“It's what you love, and then when you sell it, then you will recoup some of it,” he said. “But that's not our ultimate goal.”

Though the value of a house might not increase to cover the remodeling costs, updates will make a house stand out to potential buyers.

“What it does is it helps the house get sold quicker, and the more quickly you sell your home, the more money you're saving on house payments and interest and taxes and so forth,” Knapik said. “Every month quicker you sell it, you're saving whatever that payment would be.”